Tag: mass shootings

CIA and Mossad-linked Surveillance System Quietly Being Installed Throughout the US

Launched in 2016 in response to a Tel Aviv shooting and the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, Gabriel offers a suite of surveillance products for “security and safety” incidents at “so-called soft targets and communal spaces, including schools, community centers, synagogues and churches.” The company makes the lofty promise that its products “stop mass shootings.” According to a 2018 report on Gabriel published in the Jerusalem Post, there were an estimated 475,000 such “soft targets” across the U.S., meaning that “the potential market for Gabriel is huge.”

Gabriel, since its founding, has been backed by “an impressive group of leaders,” mainly “former leaders of Mossad, Shin Bet [Israel’s domestic intelligence agency], FBI and CIA.” In recent years, even more former leaders of Israeli and American intelligence agencies have found their way onto Gabriel’s advisory board and have promoted the company’s products.

While the adoption of its surveillance technology was slower than expected in the United States, that dramatically changed last year, when an “anonymous philanthropist” gave the company $1 million to begin installing its products throughout schools, houses of worship and community centers throughout the country. That same “philanthropist” has promised to recruit others to match his donation, with the ultimate goal of installing Gabriel’s system in “every single synagogue, school and campus community in the country.”

With this CIA, FBI and Mossad-backed system now being installed throughout the United States for “free,” it is worth taking a critical look at Gabriel and its products, particularly the company’s future vision for its surveillance system. Perhaps unsurprisingly, much of the company’s future vision coincides with the vision of the intelligence agencies backing it – pre-crime, robotic policing and biometric surveillance.

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‘He Was Looking for People’: What We Know About the Monterey Park Shooter

A 72-year-old man shot and killed 10 people on Saturday night at a dance studio in Monterey Park, California, where decades earlier he had met his wife.

On Sunday night police named the shooter as Huu Can Tran, and confirmed that he had taken his own life earlier in the day. Police found his body inside the van he used as a getaway vehicle the night before.

Authorities have yet to identify why the gunman did what he did.

“We still are not clear on the motive,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a press conference Sunday night.

The gunman’s ex-wife and former friends have described him as irritable and  “quick to anger,” while police sources told the LA Times that the gunman had recently gone to a police station close to where he lived to claim his family was trying to poison him.

Saturday night’s massacre happened as thousands of people gathered to celebrate the Lunar New Year festival in Monterey Park, a city of 60,000 people located seven miles from downtown Los Angeles. The city is a haven for Asian Americans, who make up almost two thirds of the population. It was once described by a developer as the Chinese Beverly Hills.

The massacre on Saturday is the 36th mass shooting to take place in the U.S. since the year began, according to Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that defines a mass shooting as a shooting where four or more people are injured or killed. It is the deadliest attack since the Uvalde school shooting last May when 21 people, including 19 children, were killed.

As a mark of respect to the victims, President Joe Biden ordered flags to be flown at half staff on the White House and all federal buildings until sunset on Thursday.

“I still have questions in my mind, which is, what was the motive for this shooter? Did he have a mental illness? Was he a domestic violence abuser? How did he get these guns, and was it through legal means? Well, those questions will have to be answered in the future,” said Rep. Judy Chu, whose district includes Monterey Park and who served three terms as the city’s mayor, during a news conference on Sunday night.

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Wieambilla shooting: property owner Gareth Train posted regularly on conspiracy website before police killed

Gareth Train, the owner of a rural Queensland property where six people, including two police officers, were shot and killed on Monday, had become deeply entangled in an online conspiracy community, where he posted about a mistrust of police and claims the Port Arthur massacre was a false-flag operation.

The Queensland police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, on Tuesday said there had been “a lot of ammunition and weaponry” at the property, at Wieambilla in the Western Downs, and that the killed officers “did not stand a chance”.

Property records show the land is owned by Gareth Train and his wife, Stacey. Police went to the property on Monday afternoon looking for Gareth’s brother, Nathaniel Train, who had been reported missing by family members.

Two police officers, constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were shot and killed after arriving at the property and a third officer was injured and taken to hospital. Neighbour Alan Dare, 58, was also shot dead by the armed offenders.

Gareth and Nathaniel Train and a woman, who has not yet been identified, were subsequently shot and killed in an operation involving 16 tactical police about six hours later.

A person who knew Gareth and his wife said they believed he had been sucked into online conspiracy theories in recent years.

He appears to have been a prolific poster on an alternative website that posts conspiracy, anti-authoritarian and other articles. He said in one recent post he had been “ark homesteading for the past five years preparing to survive tomorrow”.

“When it becomes clear that we are in a time like no other and you head out into the wilderness to escape persecution, know that my wife and I will offer refuge to all brothers and sisters,” he posted.

“I will be scanning the UHF channels when that times comes.”

Gareth said the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 – Australia’s deadliest mass shooting – had been a “false flag” operation to “disarm the Australian population”.

He also posted about his mistrust for authorities, including comments critical of the Queensland Special Emergency Response Team (Sert), which ultimately arrived at the property and is understood to have shot him.

“If you are a conservative, anti-vaxx [sic], freedom lover, protester, common law, conspiracy talker, alternative news, independent critical thinker, truther, Christian, patriot etc etc expect a visit from these hammers,” he said.

Gareth also posted about working in the Queensland child protection and education systems and appeared pre-occupied with the notion the government was running “re-education camps”.

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The “Crazy, Right-Wing Shooter” Myth

If you only read the New York Times editorials, you’d believe that political violence in America is a “right-wing” problem. The Times has been warning of violence from the right for years, but on Nov. 19 and 26, they wrote two long editorials making these claims. The violence stems from the lies “enthusiastically spread” by Republican politicians. Democrats’ only complicity was their $53 million in spending on “far-right fringe candidates in the primaries.” The fringe candidates, it was hoped, would be easier to beat in the general election. 

Both editorials mention the mass murderer in Buffalo, New York, as a political right-winger. But they have been doing that all year. In May, the Times claimed he was of the right because he was racist and listened to a video on a “site known for hosting right-wing extremism.” 

The headline in the Times announced:

“Replacement theory, espoused by the suspect in the Buffalo massacre, has been embraced by some right-wing politicians and commentators.”

You wouldn’t know it from reading the Times, but the Buffalo killer was yet another mass murderer motivated by environmentalism. 

In his manifesto, the Buffalo mass murderer self-identifies as an “eco-fascist national socialist” and a member of the “mild-moderate authoritarian left.” He expresses concern that minority immigrants have too many children and will damage the environment. “The invaders are the ones overpopulating the world,” he writes. “Kill the invaders, kill the overpopulation and by doing so save the environment.”

The murderer argues that capitalists are destroying the environment, and are at the root of much of the problem.

“The trade of goods is to be discouraged at all costs,” he insists.

Overpopulation and the environment are hardly signature conservative issues.

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Colorado gay club shooter is NON-BINARY and uses they/ them pronouns, lawyer says – as it’s revealed estranged father is MMA fighter and PORN STAR named ‘Dick Delaware’

Colorado gay club shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich previously changed their name and now identifies as non-binary, using they/them pronouns.

Aldrich, 22, is suspected of murdering five people and injuring others at Club Q on Saturday – meanwhile, it was revealed that their dad is a porn star who goes by the name ‘Dick Delaware.’

The suspect’s original name is Nicholas Franklin Brink. They changed it to Anderson Lee Aldrich in 2016 in a petition signed by their mother, biological grandmother and step-grandfather.

In a court filing, Aldrich’s public defenders said that their client is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, referring to the client as ‘Mx. Anderson Aldrich.’ 

According to the petition, which was signed when Aldrich still identified as male, the name change was meant ‘to protect himself and his future from any connections’ to his birth father, Aaron Brink.

Aldrich is also apparently registered with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but to their knowledge, had not been an active member, according to the Washington Post. 

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Colorado club shooting suspect is nonbinary, attorneys say

The public defenders for the suspect in the mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub said in a Tuesday night court filing obtained by a New York Times reporter that their client is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.

The big picture: The suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, is facing multiple murder and hate crime charges over the shooting at Club Q last weekend that killed five people, per Max D’Onofrio, a city spokesperson.

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Joe Biden Calls For ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban Following Deadly Gay Nightclub Mass Shooting

Joe Biden on Sunday called for a ban on “assault weapons” following the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs.

As TGP’s Kristinn Taylor reported, Colorado Springs police identified the suspect detained in the overnight mass shooting at gay nightclub Club Q as Anderson Lee Aldrich, a 22-year-old male. The shooting killed five people at the club and injured at least 25. No motive for the shooting has been reported as of yet. Aldrich was taken to a local hospital with unstated injuries according to police, however police said they did not shoot Aldrich.

Club Q featured drag shows, including one Saturday night and an all ages drag show brunch that was scheduled for this morning and a later show for today’s Transgender Day of Remembrance

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Everything We Know About the Club Q Shooting Suspect in Colorado Springs

A gunman shot and killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs on Saturday night.

The shooting suspect, named by police as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, also injured more than two dozen people at Club Q before a patron pinned him on the ground until police arrived. Two barmen who worked at the club were killed in addition to 3 still unnamed others. Of the 25 people injured, seven were in critical condition as of Sunday night.

The suspect, who is reportedly the grandson of California state lawmaker Randy Voepel, was arrested by El Paso County police last year and charged with felony menacing and first-degree kidnapping after he allegedly threatened to harm his mother with a homemade bomb and other weapons. The case was never prosecuted.

The shooting in Colorado took place hours before the LGBTQ club was due to host an all-ages drag brunch event to celebrate Transgender Day of Remembrance. Similar events have been the target of increasingly vitriolic attacks by far-right groups and Republican lawmakers in recent months who baselessly claim they are being used to groom children.

“Club Q is a safe haven for our LGBTQ citizens,” Colorado Springs Police Department  Chief Adrian Vasquez said in a statement. “Every citizen has the right to feel safe and secure in our city, to go about our beautiful city without fear of being harmed or treated poorly. I’m so terribly saddened and heartbroken.”

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 FBI undercounts armed citizens stopping attacks

The FBI has been vastly undercounting the times a mass shooting or active shooting event has been stopped by legally armed citizens, according to an independent report provided to Secrets.

In the new report, some undercounting has been “by an order of more than 10,” suggesting that the so-called “good guy with a gun” event is not rare and may be involved in a third or more of the attacks.

“An analysis by my organization identified a total of 360 active shooter incidents during that period and found that an armed citizen stopped 124,” said John R. Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center.

“There were another 24 cases that we didn’t include where armed civilians stopped armed attacks, but the suspect didn’t fire his gun. Those cases are excluded from our calculations, though it could be argued that a civilian also stopped what likely could have been an active shooting event,” he added.

In looking over FBI cases between 2014-2021, he found that some 34% were stopped by armed citizens, not the 4% cited by the FBI and often used by the media to dismiss the importance of legally armed citizens.

Lott did not assign any blame for the difference, instead citing how some shootings are counted in the FBI’s reporting.

“Two factors explain this discrepancy – one, misclassified shootings; and two, overlooked incidents. Regarding the former, the CPRC determined that the FBI reports had misclassified five shootings: In two incidents, the bureau notes in its detailed write-up that citizens possessing valid firearms permits confronted the shooters and caused them to flee the scene. However, the FBI did not list these cases as being stopped by armed citizens because police later apprehended the attackers. In two other incidents, the FBI misidentified armed civilians as armed security personnel. Finally, the FBI failed to mention citizen engagement in one incident,” said the report.

Lott found that when he adjusted and corrected the numbers, the percentage of shootings stopped by a legal gun owner jumped from single digits to 34%-49%.

He also argued that gun-free zones were a hindrance to good data and defenses that, if eliminated, would boost the percentage of shootings stopped.

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Five Years Since the Route 91 Massacre No One Knows a Damn Thing

WES PERRY WAS in his Las Vegas hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino when a gunman, a few rooms away, smashed his own room’s window and opened fire. Fans were gathered across the Las Vegas Strip at a country-music festival. It was Oct. 1, 2017, the final night of the Route 91 Harvest festival, and headliner Jason Aldean had just started singing his hit “When She Says Baby.” The rampage went on for 10 minutes, killing 58 people and injuring more than 850. It is considered the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. 

“I was near the end of the hallway and he was at the very end of the hallway,” Perry tells Rolling Stone. “I looked out the window and I could see very clearly down at the festival site — which is actually why I loved that room — and it was all dark. I had the same view as the shooter.”

When the gunfire erupted at 10:05 p.m. Pacific time, Perry was startled out of the humming silence of his hotel room, where he’d gone to rest and charge his phone after spending Sunday at the festival. To this day, the Nashville resident still needs a white-noise machine to fall asleep. 

“You have to stop and realize how much it’s changed you,” says Perry, who is the director of country sponsorships at Live Nation, the promoters behind Route 91. “You may not realize day to day, in the moment, what it’s done to you, but then you look back and say, ‘Wow, my life changed because of that.’ ”

Yet five years since the massacre at Route 91, little else has, when it comes to mass shootings in the U.S. The suspect, a 64-year-old white man who took his own life by the time authorities entered his room, was identified, yet no motive was ever determined. A ban on bump stocks, the device the shooter used to transform his weapons from semi-automatic to automatic, was enacted via executive order by President Trump in 2018, but seemingly did little to curb future mass shootings using assault rifles. And the survivors, traumatized and struggling to heal — an estimated 22,000 people attended the festival’s third day — find it hard to agree upon anything. Even the official death toll is a point of fierce debate.

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